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Oral History Interview with Virginius Dabney, July 31, 1975. Interview A-0311-2. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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WILLIAM H. TURPIN:

Yes, I wanted to ask you just a couple of things to get a general view on
newspapers. A lot of people are saying that television is supplanting
newspapers. I wondered what you think of newspapers now, generally
speaking, and what will be here in ten, twenty, or thirty years, having
spent your life in the business?

VIRGINIUS DABNEY:

I don't see television supplanting newspapers. I think that it has cut
into the circulation of a good many papers and several magazines, but
there are areas that newspapers cover that television can't cover and
never can, as operated today. I see many technical changes in
newspapers, different methods of production, for example, electronic
things that I don't begin to understand, but which are coming and which
will perpetuate newspapers, in my opinion. Television has a role, I
think; it is often a rather distorted role
and a pernicious role. I don't mean to say that all newspapers are
public benefactors, either. Some of them are pernicious, too. But the
newspapers are here to stay. I believe that they are technically better
than they ever were and that the newspaper men are better trained than
they ever were. I think some schools of journalism are worthless and
others are extremely good; training in a good school of journalism is a
benefit to any aspiring newspaper man.